Authenticity is the new buzz word.
It’s everywhere you look. Chris Brogan, co-author of the New York Times bestselling book “Trust Agents: Using the Web to Build Influence, Improve Reputation and Earn Trust“, thinks some attempts at authenticity are heavy-handed (inauthentic?). Instead, he suggests people aim to be helpful.
“Present your most helpful side to the people who need it and do so with as much genuine interest in other people’s success as you can possibly muster,” he advises. “Be clear and disclose [biases that influence your opinion].” That can apply to businesses, too.
In our online reputation management glossary, we define authenticity as “the quality of being genuine; a valued quality among bloggers and the larger online community.”
Trustworthiness is another definition of authenticity. That is something we all would welcome more of now, wouldn’t you say?